Kukla's Korner Hockey

The vast majority of Pang’s pay comes from Fox Sports Midwest, with the rest from the club, and he decided to continue rather than take an offer from Canadian network TSN to be an analyst on its national coverage of the league.

“I was really happy that (Blues and FSM officials) stepped up,’’ Pang said, adding that the TSN people “were really good because they knew I wanted to stay in St. Louis — but they did present something very good to me. But I really enjoy it here. And it was important to me that our producer (Tim Pabst) and director (Phil Mollica) here were locked in to multiyear deals. We’re a close-knit group. That’s John Kelly. That’s Bernie Federko. That’s the whole team I’m talking about.

“In any business, when you do have leverage, you’re not trying to trick anybody,’’ he added. “I did have something else. But Bruce Affleck really’’ took charge in getting the team and FSM together.